MIDTDOWN NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS
November 1997
Message from the President
We have another BIG meeting scheduled for November 18. Pima Street will be our agenda, with City of Tucson Transportation Project Manager Joe McCullough in charge. We are inviting our neighbors from east of Swan to join us at our potluck and for this meeting as options will be presented for not only our segment of Pima (Alvernon to Swan) but also for the segment extending from Swan to Craycroft.
We feel this is an extremely important matter dealing with not only the safety of our neighborhood children but also with the nature and cohesiveness of our overall neighborhood. Please make every effort to attend—we will also decide what our December meeting should entail.
Flower Angel of the Month…
Goes out to Midtown’s two best VOLUNTEER ANGELS, Audrey Marr and Kari Garcia. A volunteer angel is the heart and soul of any effective community group—they’re not shy--they are the intrepid souls announcing at meetings and calling people on the phone, encouraging them to volunteer for newsletter mailing parties, tree plantings, etc. They have the gift or organizing events and people so that everything runs smoothly—and stays fun. They are the people who help us transform ideas into community action—and without them we would be greatly diminished as a community. Thanks Volunteer Angels, for all you do for Midtown! Flowers will be delivered to our Flower Angels by Hal Burns Flowerland at 5069 East 5th Street owned by neighbor Oonagh Morrison (this is her way of saying thanks!).
Welcome to the Holidays—Ready or not!!
Neighborhood holiday stuff: Should we make our December meeting strictly a Christmas party like last year with perhaps a cookie exchange and gift collection for local charities? We’ll decide that question at our November 18th meeting. Also, we’ll be having our Second Annual Midtown Posada (with lots of silly hats, food, song, and conviviality) during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. To find our more call Kari Garcia at 795-5795. We need musicians—last year we had a fiddle and coronet, this year—who knows??
Volunteer Spirit—where do we go from here?
In order to save the City money, Midtown has streamlined its mailing list from 2200 to 200 households. (The newsletter is free, but we asked that people specifically request to stay on the mailing list). So our monthly newsletter mailing parties are now unnecessary. The downside is that we have one less short and sweet volunteer opportunity for folks who want to connect with the community but who don’t have lots of time.
The upside is that our energies are freed up to start looking for other short and sweet volunteer opportunities. Here are the guidelines: it must be fun, give people an opportunity to connect with each other, and take a small time commitment. Most people are too busy to give more time—but that doesn’t man that they don’t want to give something!
Here are some ideas: once a year (when the weather is cool) we will hand-deliver a mailing to the whole neighborhood. Volunteers will be needed who can hand-deliver to their immediate area. If you are interested in being on that list, call Audrey Marr at 326-9531 or Kari Garcia at 795-5795.
Any other ideas for short and sweet volunteer opportunities? Call Kari at 795-5795.
November 18th Pima Street Meeting—One more Time!!
This meeting will be very important. Two design options will be presented in great detail—a 3-lane configuration, and a 2/4 lane-with-median configuration. We will also be hosting the meeting on behalf of our neighbors to the east—the Swan/Craycroft folks. Their part of the street will be built before ours, and is an important part of the overall transition design of the street. Please plan to attend.
Kari Garcia Reports: October tree planting a great success…
Our Fall tree planting started off with a blast, a blast of cold, crisp air! The volunteers met at Margaret’s bright and early on Saturday morning, and after the usual awkwardness and confusion we got to work. Four teams delivered the trees and we were done in record time—one hour. Then the back-breaking work began. We spent the next eight hours digging, installing drip systems, planting, shoveling compost on and off the truck, and having fun. We started off as a group of strangers, unorganized to say the least, but in the end we were the Midtown Machines, a team.
Throughout the day amazing things happened in our neck of the woods. The neighbor, Tiphen Wang, who set out a table with drinks and snacks for us under a shade tree, neighbors meting each other for the first time even though they only live a block apart, teenagers having fun with new-found adult friends, and memories of this beautiful day. One young man suggested that we make a project of trimming and raking my yard. At first I was perplexed, until I realized he thought Margaret’s house was mine!
The compost crew, with undoubtedly the smelliest job, didn’t seem to mind a bit. Every time they passed by they were laughing and having a good ole’ time, three men bonding without a remote! I recall the teens in the van honking the horn, trying to hurry our expert on drip systems on to the next job as he raked the finishing touches to do the job right. As I’m writing this I have a smile on my face thinking about these memories and the others that would take up too much newsletter space—you just have to come out and experience it for yourselves. So in the end we planted 87 trees and delivered 40 more, but I came away with more than aches, pains, and dirt under my nails. I wouldn’t miss the next planting for the world!
Thanks to the volunteers who made it happen: The folks from Open Inn (the strongest backs this side of the Rockies), Ed Gilligan, who pushed us along and looks good under a shade tree, Michael Metz, landscape artist who wouldn’t quit, Frank Messina, drip expert with muscles and a great smile, Phillip Benoit, head compost shoveler (in more ways than one), Chris Roberson, knows how to use a rake (no you can’t drive my car), Carol Ann Rott, our NETeam rep who doesn’t even live in our neighborhood, Rick Drury, our National Guard DDR rep, who actually believed Margaret when she said it would only take 2 hours or so! Fred Phillips, who admitted he lives in Midtown and has a truck, Mike Brown, who wanted to be a part of the community and make friends along the way, Audrey Marr, Chief Navigator and Money Collector and who can now name four species of trees, Harlan Marr, nice guy who works like a teenager and puts up with Audrey (sorry about the shovel), David Kha, who showed up between teaching gigs at TIARC, Ray Garcia, my husband, who never gets to sleep in and puts up with me, Allen Carstens, who shopped for irrigation supplies, Kevin Cannata and son who delivered those irrigation supplies, and Margaret Leonard who has strong leg muscles from riding behind the backhoe but needs to sit down and write a tree planting manual! Thanks for the dream!!!
The Wright School Park—You mean there’s more?
So the finishing touches are taking a few years…we’re patient. Martha Cooper is organizing, through the NETeams, a 20-tree planting at the Park in January, and of course Margaret Leonard is trying to throw in another 20 trees for good measure. Also, we will soon be installing picnic tables and park benches, and will finally be tiling the benches with the exquisite tile work produced by the high school kids two summers ago (has it really been that long???). More later!
Wright School’s Second Annual Halloween Fest…
…was another grand success! Lisa Langford and Kristina Rustici and the wonderful Wright School teachers spearheaded this event, and neighborhood volunteers helped. About 300 kids and their families showed up for hot dogs, cakewalk, booths, prizes, and lots of candy. Local businesses sponsoring the event were Chapparel Career College, Flandrau Science Center, Frys, PetsHotel Plus, Whiz Kids Books & Toys, Norwest Bank, and ABCO. Special thanks to neighbors Lois Carstens, Audrey Marr, Deborah Collinge, Marnie McDaniels, Maria Scrimshaw, Terry Gallaghan, Anna Marie Pattie, Carrie Rondeau, and Martha Cooper for donations of candy and volunteer time to help with the event.
ESL Classes at Wright School are Happening every Friday Morning from 9-11 A.M!
"ESL" means "English as a Second Language" and is designed to help new immigrants learn English as quickly as possible. If you have a neighbor who might benefit from these classes, let them know! Babysitting will be provided.
You can Help Wright School by…
…bringing any and all Fry’s receipts to our monthly meetings, or drop them off at Wright School. These receipts help the school obtain free equipment. The PTA is also collecting box tops from General Mills cereals, as well as the following labels: campbells, Pepperidge Farm, Prego, Pace, Franco-American, Vlasic, Milwaukee’s Pickles, Swanson, Open Pit, and V8.
Christina Rossett Reports on our Library/Learning Center
As a first step on the road to creating a Midtown Library/Learning Center, Volunteers did a great job collecting well over 300 surveys from voters at the River of Life and Heidelberg polling sites on November 4th. Martha Cooper, Brad Holland, David Kha, Audrey Marr, Christina Rossetti, Velma Hidden, Anna Marie Patti, Lindsey Jones, and Kari Garcia covered the polls from "sun up to sun down" gleaning input and ideas from our neighbors to create our vision for the library/learning center. At last month’s Neighborhood Association meeting, about 30 surveys were completed and business owners and organization leaders took surveys to distribute to their respective customers and members. We will continue to have surveys available for this purpose and are planning to create a way to get input from kids at John B. Wright Elementary School.
Thanks to the volunteers and everyone in Midtown who took the time to give us their ideas!
Connie "Bike" Lady" Brannock Says:
All right ya’ll we’ve got money to burn. Midtown’s Bike Club aka "Spokes for Folks" now has a $5,000 grant for tools and supplies to set up a really great neighborhood bike clinic. But we need more volunteers! Here’s your chance to learn bicycle maintenance and repair skills, to teach those skills to neighborhood kids and grown-ups, and to earn your own bike! If you would like to adopt a bike, volunteer, or want more information, please call Connie (aka BikeLady) at 318-0403).
Catalina High School will host the National Aids Quilt Exhibit on December 1st thru
5th from 7:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and on December 3rd from 7:30 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. For more information and/or to volunteer, please call Judith Lessee at 318-2954.
Chess Club Volunteers Needed (This one is short and sweet)
The Wright School Chess Club is so popular they’ve got more kids than they can handle! Chessmaster David Kha needs help: When: Monday afternoons from 2:30-3:30. Where: Wright School. Job Description: Set up tables and chess boards for the kids, get the kids settled in at the beginning, and make sure the kids stay focused on the chess game. For more information call David at 323-8278.
Homeless Kids Need Your Help
The Interfaith Coalition for the Homeless and Catalina High School need retirees do work with homeless Catalina High School ninth graders. Call Martha Cooper at 327-4733 to find out how you can help.
The Grant/Alvernon Area Plan is on Its Way
Here’s your chance to give input. An area plan helps determine how an area will change over the years…it can get better…or it can get worse. Neighborhood input is very important to this process. The City Planning Department is looking for 15-20 people to volunteer for an Area Plan Steering Committee. The commitment is: 12-l5 months, one meeting a month, approximately 2-3 hours long. For more info call Margaret at 323-5049 or Martha at 327-4733.
Without held from others, no one can carry on, either in times of joy or in times of sorrow. He who thinks only of himself is not respected.
-Ivan Hotych, Hutsul villager
Our relations with one another are like a stone arch, which would collapse if the stones did not mutually support each other, and which is upheld in this very way.
-Seneca